av ‧ a ‧ lanche /ˈævəlɑːntʃ $ -læntʃ/ BrE AmE noun [countable]
[ Date: 1700-1800 ; Language: French ; Origin: French dialect lavantse , avalantse ]
1 . a large mass of snow, ice, and rocks that falls down the side of a mountain:
Two skiers were killed in the avalanche.
2 . an avalanche of something a very large number of things such as letters, messages etc that arrive suddenly at the same time:
The school received an avalanche of applications.